What Lies Beneath

Before: Fat "Ceiling"

Photograph courtesy Thames Water

Fat thickly coats a Thames Water-administered sewer in Reading (map), U.K., in May 2009.

The fat "ceiling" is the result of years of what the company calls sewer abuse—the pouring of food waste down sinks and the flushing of items other than toilet paper and human waste.
Once in the sewers, leftover meat fat gets mixed in with items like makeup wipes, diapers, cotton balls, condoms, and sanitary napkins, said Amy Dutton, a spokesperson for Thames Water, which is responsible for wastewater treatment for various U.K. jurisdictions.
"It all gets caught up with the fat, and the fat congeals," she explained. "And that's what causes the blockage."

More Than Just a Pretty Picture

 

Honduran “Desert”

Photograph by Bradley E. Clift

This Honduran “desert” was pasture and farmland before Hurricane Mitch arrived in November 1998. Torrential rains unleashed the full fury of a flooded Choluteca River, which washed away entire villages, threw trees like matchsticks, and transported enough sand from the mountains to create an artificial desert.
The deadly storm killed thousands of people and destroyed so much of Honduras’s agricultural and transportation infrastructure that President Carlos Flores Facusse said the disaster had destroyed 50 years of progress in his country.

Living Life Till It's Last Breath

For the past months I have been letting routine get in the way of learning and growing and straining my potential in the direction of my growth and goals - as so often we allow to happen in our lives.

A turn of events personally has made me pause to reassess how I have wanted to live my life and whether I am following through in pursuing this direction. In some regards it feels as though I became distracted by something along the way and wrapped myself up in it for too long - only to find that when I looked up I, dissapointedly, discovered I had not travelled as far as I had expected.

Sometimes we just get routine and commitments in the way of where we want to go and what we want to do. It often feels as though its easier to swim with the tide. But easy doesnt always mean right. I read a quote by Og Mandino and in many regards I feel as though I am shrinking into a grain of sand which is mentioned in his quote. And it made me think of so many people who have lived and died a life led like a grain of sand. One small particle amongst millions of others. Indistinguishable. Unexceptional. Surely there's more to life than being a grain amongst a billion more?

At the moment I am reading "Around Africa On My Bicycle" and I can fully understand Riaan Manser's desire to do something extra-ordinary with his life. And extra-ordinary is achievable - "to do anything worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can" ~ Og Mandino.

I like that - with gusto - and srambling through!

For me personally it's time to realign myself with my goals, to keep on following the plan and continue in my quest to grow and give back and to do something worthy and worth calling extra-ordinary!

"I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth I will apply ALL my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy". ~ Og Mandino.

The Earth and Me

Today, the 22 April, is the official Earth Day 2010 Campaign - forty years after the first Earth Day. 40 years on I am not too sure we have accomplished much - possibly have caused more destruction within that time than anything else. Awareness has definitely increased with regards to Green Issues but action still seems to be lagging behind.

In light of recent events (the eruption of Iceland's volcano, earthquakes in both Afghanistan and China) even the most hardened politician and industrialist should surely be raising an eyebrow and pondering just how long we can continue along this abusive path of our planet and its resources. Some might once have lulled themselves into the belief that total environmental chaos would not happen in their lifetime, and, when it does, our children's children would by then have conquered other planets to emigrate to.

The ongoing escalation of nature's revolt seems to no longer be simple warnings but rather a dire reaction in a chain of cataclysmic events. It clearly illustrates a bold NO in answer to the question "Are we doing enough?". In contrast we simply are not doing anything AT ALL.

Each and every one of us are to blame for the growing landfills of thrown away cellphones, computers and plastic. We flush chemicals into our drainage systems without much thought to its consequences to the environment DESPITE our grown awareness of these significant earth issues.

Today is the ideal opportunity to evaluate your contribution to the destruction of our planet and pose the question to yourself and your household: "Are we doing anything AT ALL to curb the obliteration of our ONLY earth?"

Getting from where you are to where you want to be

So, I'm reading Jack Canfield's The Success Principles (well, actually started last year but have tackled it with some vigour as a new year dawns!) which is really all about setting goals and taking the right steps to achieving them. And in amongst all of this goal-setting there is one goal, one huge, all important goal that needs to be made, what he terms the "breakthrough goal" - and what I have called the Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

I'm not there yet - setting that great big goal I mean - my brain is still reeling at the thought of setting 101 goals for myself. One hundred and one goals?! For real? In one go - do I have one hundred and one goals that need to be attained?

It's a daunting thought and yet when you think about it, isn't there so much that we want to do, so much we want to have and so much that we want to be before we die that 101 shouldnt be all that great a number? Like someone once said "If you are bored with life, if you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things - you don't have enough goals". Hmm.

So I sat down with one of my many notebooks (I have a love for notebooks, all those empty pages waiting to be filled!) and began to jot down all that I want to do, have and be. And to keep on inspiring myself to keep at it, doggedly, determinedly I have started this blog so that I may fill it with the ideas, visions and imaginings that will make up my Big Hairy Audacious Plan!